In Japan, a man is painfully watching his young son, Waturo, lie in a hospital bed, unconscious. At some point, a guy, going by the codename, “Ladybug,” is assigned to find the murderer. He boards a train to find the killer.

Meanwhile, two British assassin brothers, codenamed “Lemon” and “Tangerine,” are several cars away from Ladybug. They are with this man, known as “The Son,” and are taking him to his father, “The White Death.”

Ladybug meets a young woman, “The Prince,” who automatically dislikes him. Many other characters get introduced, as well.

During the trip, The Son gets poisoned and dies. Lemon and Tangerine disguise him as a living man who is just sleeping. 

Meanwhile, Ladybug runs into a guy, “The Wolf,” who recognizes him as someone who served drinks at his wedding, where everyone got poisoned until they died. They two fight since The Wolf thinks Ladybug was one of the people responsible for all those deaths, including his wife. He tries to kill Ladybug with a knife by throwing it. But Ladybug accidentally reverts the knife back, and The Wolf dies instead.

Chaos and fights continue to erupt on the train. Eventually, The Ladybug becomes rivals with Lemon.

Despite the promising trailer and first several minutes, I will admit that the film did not please me as much as I hoped. For one thing, it was quite hard to follow due to the constant POV-switching. Even though it had to happen, it occurred too quickly. Sometimes, the characters were also a little too quiet, and that can make the moments boring. 

The pacing was also a bit too slow. The movie runs just over 2 hours, although I don’t think much, if anything, should have been cut, including the crazy scenes where Lemon rides outside the train. Obviously unrealistic–but hey, it’s a movie. And in this case, the story matters a lot more. So, the super-unrealistic moments don’t really bother me.

That being said, this film did have strengths. One of them involves Lemon and Tangerine discussing Thomas the Tank Engine. That was cute. 

Another is when both Ladybug and Lemon made the dead bodies look like they were sleeping. I found that creative.

And the humor is the biggest strength. I laughed a lot throughout the first half of the film. Yes, it’s one of those movies that starts out lighthearted, but gets darker as it progresses.

Overall, though, Bullet Train was just an okay watch. Aside from my criticisms, note that as an R-rated movie, it isn’t for the fainthearted. For example, there are scenes with vomiting that do not get hidden. I covered those parts up. There is also some blood and intense fighting (although it is an action movie).

Would I recommend this movie? Maybe. It did get mostly mixed reviews.

I give Bullet Train 3 out of 5 stars.